Kobe Bryant (photo. Sembrot)

Would you pay to get Kobe to play? It seems like Besiktas is willing to take anything at this point. The club is on the verge of making the biggest international signing ever, but don’t quite have to funds to pull Bryant from the States. Depending on who you talk to, Kobe is interested or had his managers contact the team or is waiting on an offer that might not be worth it unless a sponsorship steps up to front the loot. However, the New York Times is reporting that the Turkish club has indeed made an offer to the Laker and is only waiting on a response from his agent … If only scoring in Euroleagues counted towards your NBA numbers. Bryant would probably sprint over there. The L.A. Times flash through all types of mathematical numbers to try to conceive when Kobe could pass Jordan or Kareem, which is even more up in the air than usual because there’s a chance Bryant doesn’t play in the NBA again until he’s 34 … Meanwhile, call off those championship plans. Zaza Pachulia says he won’t be playing with Besiktas. They couldn’t come to an agreement … The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association released the stats from the past season for the Basketball Related Income (BRI) and player compensation. Some highlights include: BRI increased by nearly five percent, going from $3.643 billion to $3.817 billion while total player compensation increased by the exact same percentage (the sixth straight year player compensation had increased under the previous CBA) and over the last six years, the average player salary jumped by 16 percent … We had some heated arguments in the office yesterday about this: are you okay with players grabbing dual citizenships to play ball? … The Pistons have made their move, apparently hiring former New Jersey coach and Boston assistant Lawrence Frank to be their new head coach. It had come down to either Frank or Mike Woodson, but Frank made such a strong impression during an interview that they had to tab him. Perhaps one of the selling points is Frank’s time with Doc Rivers. Rivers is considered league-wide to be one of the best coaches in the biz as far as handling and relating to players. We all know Detroit was like a war zone these past two years – players rebelling, coaches benching players, everyone growing more frustrated by the day – so that quality had to weight heavily into the decision. Detroit doesn’t have contender talent, but look at some of these names: Rodney Stuckey, Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon, Richard Hamilton and Greg Monroe. The Pistons at least have something to work with … Check out some exclusive signature sneakers for Carmelo, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade for the Jordan Brand Flight Tour in China … While everyone wants to start crowning Don Nelson for the Minnesota job already – c’mon, is there really ANYONE else you would expect out there? – Rick Adelman will be interviewing for the job today. He’s basically a less crazy version of Nelson, so maybe Kahn is trying to balance out the candidates … The WNBA All-Star Game tips off at 3:30 ET today, headlined by players like Tamika Catchings, Cappie Pondexter, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi. Will you watch? … Check out the best dunks of the year right here. It’s amazing how often you’ll catch someone with a crow-raiser, then you look over on the opposing bench and guys are trying to contain themselves. Still, you can make the case that this was the best dunk out of all of them … And for now, LeBron isn’t thinking about going overseas … We’re out like Ric Flair wrestling again.

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